Richard Roeper Blog

Not to judge a book by its cover—-strike that, because that’s exactly what we’re doing….

First Jesse James was married to this woman:

Then he married this woman:

And now we’re hearing he had an affair with THIS woman:

You know how some guys have a ‘type’ they’re attracted to? With Mr. James, it would appear there are at least two distinct types that catch his eye: the kind of girl you take home to Mom, and the kind of girl who would scare the shit out of Mom, Dad, the family dog and just about everyone else who isn’t a trained special ops expert or a vampire hunter.

Talking about the 3D ‘craze’ with Leonard Maltin and Steph and Matt, hosts of “Hollywood Dailies” on ReelzChannel.

Below you’ll find my bracket for the NCAA tourney. I know some fans like to fill out several different brackets, but I sink or swim with the same picks in every pool I enter. (For amusement purposes only, of course.)

As I’m getting ready to promote Bet the House, I’ve already seen a few criticisms from folks saying it’s irresponsible for me to write a book ‘celebrating’ gambling. I don’t know if any of these people have actually read the book—-but either way, I’m wondering if they all refuse to participate in NCAA po0ls on moral grounds.

If you copy my selections and you do well, you’re welcome. If you tank, whoops! Sorry about that. I’ve done pretty well the last couple of years, but let’s face it, there’s a lot of luck involved in these things. I tried to pick a few key upsets, but you don’t want to get too clever. In the end, the cream usually rises.

Good luck!

Gooped up on DayQuil and caffeine, having just arrived from Los Angeles, while standing outside a soundstage in Albuquerque, a couple of days away from going to Las Vegas, I was on the phone with my agent in Chicago when I got an email from Howard Stern’s producer in New York. For a quick second, I thought my head might actually explode. Well, not actually, but you know what I mean.

This was last week. While I was “on vacation.” (From my job as a columnist for the Sun-Times, that is.)

My travels began with a flight from O’Hare to Los Angeles for the Oscars and an appearance on “The Tonight Show” last Monday. After blogging and Twittering and “column-ing” about the Academy Awards on Sunday night, on Monday afternoon I headed over to the NBC studios in Burbank for a taping of “The Tonight Show.” A buddy of mine from Chicago happened to be in L.A. on business, and he was able to join me backstage and hang out as I went over the segment with producer Steve Ridgeway and chatted about movies with Jay. We were also able to enjoy a Stella Artois, thanks to the courtesy cart. Love the backstage courtesy cart.

I’ve been on “The Tonight Show”  more than 20 times over the last decade—-all thanks to my partnership with Roger Ebert. Roger and Gene were frequent guests on the Tonight Show, starting with the Johnny Carson days and continuing through the Leno era. They were also great favorites of David Letterman. On Letterman’s show, the first guest always departs before the second guest comes on. Once Julia Roberts asked Dave, “If the first guest doesn’t stick around, what are the two chairs for?”

“Siskel and Ebert,” replied Letterman.

After I was named as Roger’s permanent co-host and we had been on the air for about a year or so, the call came to do the “Tonight Show.” With Roger as the buffer, the appearances were always fun and exciting. We’d go out there and kick around the movies of the day, and the eight-minute segment would go by in a blur.

When Roger was sidelined, Jay Leno was the first guest co-host on “Ebert & Roeper.” After I did a guest shot on “Tonight,” we went across the lot to a makeshift balcony set and taped a full review show. Jay did this purely out of respect to Roger and the show.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve been a solo guest on “Tonight” a handful of times. It’s never going to be the same without Roger there, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to talk movies with Jay and to promote this site and other projects, including my latest book. When I’m backstage, I always think about Roger and his wife Chaz, and all the great times we had before and after our “Tonight Show” appearances. (I’ll never forget a post-Tonight dinner with Roger and Michael Moore. At one point during a discussion of politics, Moore said to Roger, “And I thought I was a liberal!”)

Last Monday, the first guest was Simon Cowell, who sported an alarming display of man-cleavage and welcomed his fiance.

Simon Cowell on the Tonight Show

Then it was my turn. I think the segment went pretty well; got a lot of nice feedback. I never watch these appearances, because once they’re over, they’re over, and the idea of Tivo’ing myself or actually watching it in ‘real time’—-I don’t know. As it is I’m writing an extended blog entry about me-me-me, right? I don’t need to watch myself on television. But here’s the link anyway

RR on the Tonight Show

When we cut to a commercial break, Simon was very complimentary about my segment and also asked questions about the book and whether I had thought of turning it into a reality series. (The answer would be yes.) He talked about how much he loved Chicago and wished me success with the book. He was nothing like the guy who reduces contestants to puddles of despair on “American Idol.”

On Tuesday I was off to Albuquerque to tape a month’s worth of  segments for the Reelz Channel, including a piece with Casey Messer, host of “Movies & Music.”

Which brings us to that moment outside a soundstage in Albuquerque…

As I was locking in the deal to become Roe Conn’s co-host on WLS (890-AM), I was hearing from Howard Stern’s producer, Gary Dell’Abate, asking if I could join Howard in-studio in early April. With the blessing of the WLS brass, I confirmed the Stern appearance (as well as a number of other radio, TV and in-person promotional opportunities for the book). My official start date for the radio gig is April 12, which gives me time to honor my commitments to promote Bet the House and take care of some other business before we launch the show.

Phil Rosenthal column re: WLS gig

Robert Feder column re: WLS

Sun-Times story on WLS gig

As I leaving Albuquerque, I was doing interviews about the radio show and the book, powering off the iPhone just before I boarded a plane to Las Vegas, where I planned to play in the Wynn Classic, catch a Sox/Cubs exhibition game, share some good times and maybe even get some sleep.

It all worked out, and then some. I ended up finishing sixth in a tournament at the Wynn Classic, and I won’t punish you with details of the two-day experience other than to say I was the only non-pro at the final table, I ran very well and played pretty solid poker—and if my KK hadn’t gotten cracked by AQ, who knows, maybe I would have the whole thing. (I certainly would have been the chip leader.) It was still pretty exciting to mix it up with guys who have career winnings in excess of $1 million and to hang tough.

Now I’m back in Chicago, looking at a crazy-busy March and early April, followed by a new adventure that I’m really excited about. If you live in the Chicago area, I hope you’ll tune every day from 2-6 p.m. (Well, if you tune in every day from 2-6 p.m. I will come to your home and hug you. I’d be thrilled if you tuned in from time to time.) If you’re outside the listening arena, you can catch the show on podcast.

I’m still going to be writing the column, doing this blog, reviewing movies, appearing on Reelz Channel and writing books. Given the economy and the ever-dwindling number of opportunities for film critics, opinion journalists, radio hosts, et al., I feel insanely fortunate these days. If you look at the Comments sections under those stories about the WLS gig, you’ll see that a few people have worked themselves into a lather of hatred and envy over this latest news. That’s OK. Have at it. I always look at this way—-would you rather be the guy who has the jobs, or the guy who’s lurking anonymously on media message boards, spewing bile about someone else instead of working on his own career situation and obvious personal issues?

All I can do is work my ass off. Always have, always will.

Cheers!

RR

Here’s my review of “The Hurt Locker” from last summer…

“The Hurt Locker” A+

“The Hurt Locker” is a war film set in present-day Iraq, but it is not about the war in Iraq.

It is about the universal soldier who becomes addicted to war. It is about war as a drug. It is about a man who goes home and is utterly lost in the grocery store—-but completely comfortable dodging enemy fire and defusing bombs in brutal, hostile conditions.

It is a searing, unforgettable film filled with unbearably tense set pieces and first-rate performances.

Director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal (who was embedded with a U.S. bomb-disposal squad in Iraq in 2004) have fashioned a gritty, visceral slice of the insanely dangerous, day-to-day operations of a squad of American soldiers that are risking their lives as regularly as you and I take a three-day weekend. (And they know full well that a huge percentage of the civilians back home think they shouldn’t even be in Baghdad, or are completely indifferent to their mission.)

Bigelow veers close to glamorizing the bloodshed with her penchant for ear-splitting rock and roll and her admittedly impressive, slow-motion shots of explosions. But she also serves up horrific scenes of death and destruction that serve as a punch to the gut. Even if a soldier survives a war physically uninjured, he does not emerge intact.

We follow the day-to-day routines of an elite bomb squad that has 38 days left in their rotation. In the opening scene, where the squad uses a rolling ‘bot’ to sniff out a bomb on a busy street in Baghdad, we’re sure something won’t happen because of an element I don’t want to divulge here—-and yet it happens anyway. From that moment, Bigelow serves notice. We’re in for a hellacious ride.

Jeremy Renner isn’t 1/10th as famous as many of his peers, but he’s got much more of a star presence and better chops than just about any pretty boy actor you can think of. Renner commands the screen here in a performance worthy of a young Russell Crowe. His Sgt. James is a classic, conflicted, deeply flawed hero. Swaggering macho—-but not a caricature. Extremely good at what he does—-but the antithesis of the team player.

James has defused more than 800 bombs, and he keeps the switches in a box under his bed, noting that these cheap pieces of plastic and wire could have killed him in others in a heartbeat. At times his bravery crosses the line into death-wish territory—-but he’s not dead inside. He strikes up a friendship with an Iraqi boy, and he’s conflicted about the estranged wife and young son he’s left behind. (Evangeline Lilly from “Lost” has an effective cameo as the wife. We also get brief but memorable turns from Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes.)

The underrated Anthony Mackie is brilliant here as a hardened vet who has moments of intense doubt. Brian Geraghty has the Jeremy Davies thing down pat as a good-hearted but brittle soldier who has post-traumatic stress syndrome written all over his future. There isn’t a weak performance in this film.

Although it’s not quite in the same league as “Coming Home” and “The Deer Hunter,” this movie strikes similar themes about the huge chasm separating the maddening, adrenaline rush of the war experience and the beautiful banality of everyday home life. When a civilian sees a war veteran in a bar or on a bus in the States, and the vet is staring into space or acting strangely, we might think of him as cliche. Get over it, we think. When we see that veteran through Bigelow’s eyes, we’re amazed that anyone returning home from these experiences can achieve even moments of “normalcy.”

This is one of the best films of the year.

So it was another glamorous, occasionally inspirational, utterly predictable and at times downright goofy night at the Academy Awards. All the prohibitive favorites won in the acting categories, Kathryn Bigelow made history as the first female director win an Oscar—-and “The Hurt Locker” triumphed over “Avatar” in most of the technical categories and in the two-film race for Best Picture. “The Hurt Locker” was the big winner of the night, with six trophies in all.

Best speech: Sandra Bullock, who was funny and humble and sincere and just a little scattered, but that was OK.

Worst speech: Purple Dress Lady saying “Let the woman speak!” At least she didn’t say Beyonce should have won.

Nice touch: those tributes to the nominees, with Oprah Winfrey making Gabourey Sidibe cry in a real-life scene that seemed like something out of “Precious” and her own fantasies; Stanley Tucci doing a great monologue about Meryl Streep and her endless string of nominations; and Colin Farrell reminding everyone Jeremy Renner was in “S.W.A.T.”

As for the show itself: why do we make a big deal out of who the host(s) will be, when every year the host(s) virtually disappear after the opening moments? Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin rebounded from a surprisingly just-above-average opening monologue (following Neil Patrick Harris’ underwhelming musical number) with a couple of clever taped bits involving the Snuggie and “Paranormal Activity,” but after that they served as mere traffic cops.

One thing to look for tomorrow: will conservative commentators give “The Hurt Locker” team credit for repeatedly paying tribute to our men and women in the Armed Forces? It was a far cry from Michael Moore and his “fictitious war” rant from a few years back. Kudos to Kathryn Bigelow for her words of praise for the troops that put their lives on the line for us—-regardless of the politics that put them in danger.

Did we really get an Interpretive Dance tribute to “The Hurt Locker”? Good Lord, the people who put on these shows never learn. No matter how talented the performers, you cannot do an interpretive dance number for something like “The Hurt Locker” without inducing mass chortling. I wanted lyrics as well: “When the explosions come/it’s gonna be a shocker/if you don’t know the combination/to…The Hurt Locker!”

So they tried something new this year for the “In Memoriam” segment: James Taylor doing a lovely version of the Beatles’ “In My Life” as we saw montage of the recently departed, from Brittany Murphy to David Carradine to brilliant writers such as Horton Foote and Larry Gelbert and legendary directors such as Eric Rohmer.

Eric Rohmer

Brittany Murphy

Problem was, they once kept kept the mics open throughout the Kodak Theater, so we could hear the robust cheers for the better-known icons, and the woeful smattering of claps for behind-the-scenes talents and older character actors.

It’s just so unseemly. As I’ve said every year FOR A MILLION YEARS: Even in death, the star system is in place.

Winner for Best Costume starts out by saying, “I already have two of these.”

Fine, then give this one back!